Rialto candidates make pitch at forum

RIALTO -- Two veteran City Council members vying for the mayor's seat joined six council candidates, including an incumbent seeking his second term, at a forum on Thursday night at the downtown Woman's Club.

About 40 people listened as council members Ed Scott and Deborah Robertson each gave their reasons why they should fill outgoing Mayor Grace Vargas' seat.

Between opening and closing statements, the candidates fielded written questions from the audience.

Topics ranged from the controversial utility-users tax to how elected leaders will govern a city facing 19 percent unemployment, scaled-back services and anemic economic growth.

There was a lot of talk among candidates about their love for the city, but not much in the way of specific policies that the candidates would pursue.

One thing for certain: Don't expect the candidates to fight the utility-users tax, which sunsets in June, unless voters re-approve it.

According to City Administrator Mike Story, the General Fund will lose $11 million, or 22.8 percent, in revenue annually, if the tax goes away.

"We have to support the utility-users tax," said Shawn O'Connell, a council candidate who is a retired police sergeant.

O'Connell and incumbent Ed Palmer are among six candidates for the council. Voters this year will elect two council members.

The other candidates are Joe Britt, a businessman; June Hayes, a businesswoman; Sam Syed, a production supervisor; Rafael Trujillo, a congressional aide.

Scott and Robertson expressed respect for one another and their work on the council dais during a forum that was cordial and without the political and personal jabs that typically mark campaign seasons.

Robertson said she has gone against council majorities when she thought her colleagues were moving in the wrong direction. That includes her opposition to enhanced pensions for public safety personnel.

Continued belt-tightening is what is needed to move the city through difficult financial times, Robertson said.

"I think it's important that we as a city have to learn to live within our means," she said.

Scott cited his council experience, especially regarding his work with local, state and federal officials to clean up perchlorate contamination in the city's groundwater.

"In fact, yesterday I had the privilege of signing the very first settlement (with perchlorate polluters)," Scott said.

The council candidates agreed that helping small businesses succeed is key to growing the city again.

But their answers were short on specifics.

Britt said his experience as an entrepreneur and on the city Recreation and Parks Commission enables him to be a team player, and he will be an "advocate for small businesses.... I can help this team go forward."

Hayes, a veteran member of the the city Utility Commission, has been active in the city since 1977.

"We need businesses in this city," she said. "We need restaurants in this city. We need retail in this city. And unfortunately, although none of us like it, we need some more big businesses, perhaps some of those messy warehouses, because we need jobs and we need tax revenue."

Palmer, an attorney who owns businesses in the city, said the best way for government to help is to get out of the way.

Along those lines, O'Connell pledged to work to streamline fees and licensing requirements for all businesses, bring in employer job fairs, and assist businesses in learning about programs that could lead to tax breaks.

But Palmer said that among the council candidates touting the need to streamline business requirements, he has the experience on the dais to get it done, saying later in the forum that the city should be run "like a business."

Syed, also a utility commissioner, supports Measure V, a proposed business license tax increase on petroleum companies that operate in the city. Proponents say it will raise roughly $5 million in annual revenue.

"That's going to bring in revenue that's not going to come from the citizens of Rialto but from the big oil companies that have been using Rialto's land but not (paying their taxes)," he said.

As a congressional aide to Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, Rafael Trujillo, who also is on the Recreation and Parks Commission, said his experience will help him as a councilman.

Public safety and government transparency are top priorities, he said. Trujillo said the health-care industry will continue to grow in the region and the city should work with the school district and hospitals to train students for the medical field.

"I want to make sure we partner with Rialto Unified School District so that we can create a doctors academy at one of our high schools...." Trujillo said.